With a large number, and continually growing, number of mailpieces being processed, it is becoming increasingly important to provide an efficient process to sort the mailpieces. In general, one large sorting machine is used to sort the mail for delivery to various geographic locations. Typically, the mailpieces are sorted according to a sort scheme into numerous groups (e.g. a range of ZIP codes, ZIP code (5 digits), ZIP code (9 digits), etc.).
The United States Postal Service gives more monetary discounts to a mailing that has a finer resolution of sortation (i.e. postal carrier route level). As such, with existing finite sized sorting machines, a large number of sort schemes and sorts will be required to properly sort the mailpieces to the resolution dictated and for carrier route qualified mail.
The present process of sorting mail utilizes one large sorting machine performing numerous sorts according to a sort scheme. A batch of mailpieces are fed into the sorting machine with the address or bar code of each mailpiece being read. The sorting machine directs each mailpiece into an appropriate destination "pocket" or "bin" in accordance with the sort scheme. After the entire batch is sorted with each mailpiece sorted into a particular pocket, the sweeper then "sweeps" the mailpieces. During the sweeping process, all the mailpieces in the pockets are removed from the pockets. After completion of the sweeping process, a new batch of mailpieces can be sorted.
The problem with the present sorting process is that it is necessary to stop the sorting machine after all the mailpieces for a particular sort scheme are sorted. This is required to allow the sweeper to sweep the sorted mailpieces from the pockets before the next sort scheme can be run. Mailpieces directed to the same pocket from two different sort schemes cannot be mixed as they are directed to different geographic locations. As such, the amount of time for the end-of-sort-scheme sweep is non-productive time. During this time, the sorting machine is not sorting any mailpieces to the pockets. Consequently, the sorting machine is not being used efficiently. With the increased number of sort schemes needed to sort to the postal carrier level, the amount of non-productive time is increased dramatically, and the time inefficiency of the sorting machine is exacerbated.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a sorting process that minimizes or reduces the amount of time the sorting machine is not in operation (sorting mailpieces to the pockets). Such a system will increase efficiency by minimizing the amount of time that the sorting machine is not processing mail. Furthermore, a sorting process is needed that realizes efficient use of the sorting machine down to the postal carrier level.